Many of our communities have been left reeling from violence, harassment, and intimidation due to the rise of the militia movement over the past few years. Donald Trump’s tacit endorsement of the far right “patriot” subculture has given it a pass to grow and recruit, often manipulating the dispossession that many rural and blue-collar workers are facing in our current economic tumult. Trump’s rhetoric about immigration, particularly the conspiratorial fear-mongering around the border, has played to a certain audience. This has led to the growth of vigilante groups like Veterans on Patrol and Arizona Border Recon, which sit at border to try to harm migrants.
A book called “The New Book of…” recently published these words: The Marauders: Standing Up to Vigilantes in the American BorderlandsPatrick Strickland, a journalist, chronicles the struggle that many communities have waged against these. border militiasIn states like Arizona and Texas. Strickland talks about what motivates these groups to grow and what threat they pose to our communities.
Shane Burley: Your book The Marauders takes readers into the story of “border militias,” these radical right-wing groups of armed men positioning themselves as vigilante border defenders. Who are these figures for those who are new to this world?
Patrick Strickland They’re something of an offshoot of the broader militia and patriot movement that has a focus mostly on the U.S.-Mexico border. Many of them are armed groups, and some come from far away. Some have set up permanent bases in Texas and Arizona. Larry Hopkins and United Constitutional Patriots, for example, were detaining migrants in New Mexico at the time. This is their main focus.
They are often carrying weapons and go out in search of people crossing the border. Many of them used to boast about detaining migrants in the past. This is illegal. So now we see a lot more of them simply claiming that they’re doing reconnaissance for the Border Patrol, to whom they would pass information. But that’s not always the case. I discuss in my book how there’s evidence that some groups have detained migrants more recently. There’s one group in Arizona now called Veterans on Patrol, which is headed up by a non-veteran named Michael Meyer. They have set up fake migrant station replicas of those used by humanitarian groups to provide water and resources for migrants crossing the border. This is something they have done for the past year. They simply put up a blue banner, similar to the ones at humanitarian water station, and then they try lure migrants to those stations.
These groups have a history that spans decades. It could be traced back as far as the 1880s, when state-sanctioned vigilantes defended the southern border from Chinese immigrants. Modern history can be traced back to 1977, when the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan Border Watch Patrols were organized by Louis Beam and David Duke. They also said that they weren’t detaining people and that they were simply passing information to Border Patrol. Something really interesting is that Border Patrol has consistently claimed that they don’t work with these vigilante militia groups, that’s their official line. But sometimes it seems like there may be sympathetic folks inside Border Patrol’s ranks.
How do you describe the groups that were involved in the January 6 insurrection? We continue to see indictments for those who participated. The Maraudersrelate to the violence we witnessed at the Capitol?
Some of these border militias have been linked to the Oath Keepers or the Three Percenters. Michael Meyer, Veterans on Patrol, had actually been at Bundy ranch during the Nevada standoff. Some of them had travelled to Malheur in Oregon as part of the wildlife refuge takeover. And Arizona Border Recon’s Tim Foley, according to transcripts of group phone calls before the Malheur takeover, had been in discussion with the other “patriot” groups and militias who took over the refuge. There are definitely connections, but they are also distinct. That said, it’s certainly no surprise that some border militia figures appeared at the January 6 Capitol riot.
They do have their focus on the southern border, and we’ve seen surges in the last few years — the most obvious one is in 2018 leading up to the midterm elections while Trump played up the so-called “immigrant caravan.” This inspired a lot of these groups to flock to the southern border. That’s actually the time where I started writing this book and how I found a few of the communities that I focused on in it. I reached out to people who had spoken out in the local press about the presence militias in their communities. One case involved a conversation with a lady who had put up anti-militia sign in her yard in Arivaca, Arizona. It’s a small town about 11 miles from the border, and they had a history of tragedy with these types of groups. 2009 saw rogue militia members raid a house believed to be owned by a drug dealer from the big-time cartel. They killed him and his 9-year old daughter. That’s one of the things I hope the book gets across is that these kinds of conspiracy theories and misinformation really do put human lives at risk. I think we’ve seen that borne out since. Larry Hopkins’s group, United Constitutional Patriots, after news broke that they had been detaining migrants, the FBI chargedThey were trained to kill Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and George Soros.
What connections do these groups have to the larger Trump or “Make America Great Again” movement?
That’s an interesting question because there is a very solid connection between some of these people and fairly important people in the Republican Party. Tim Foley of Arizona Border Recon had gone and spoke in D.C. at an event with Roger Stone, Trump’s confidant, and former congressman Steve King. He’s also gotten cozy with former Maricopa County Sheriff and anti-immigrant activist Joe Arpaio. After finishing the book, I began to see information about militia members operating in southern Texas from the Dallas region. I was surprised to discover that at least four to five Republican candidates for Congress or for the state legislature were supporting this group, or that they had attended recent fundraising drives for it.
Even after Trump left office, particularly in Texas, Republicans continued to spread the most outrageous conspiracy theories about migration. The number of people being apprehended at the border did go up, but that rise started happening in April 2020, during Trump’s presidency. The result is that those on the far right will believe that the federal government (or the state government with Gov.) is not doing their job effectively. Greg Abbott) are not effectively performing their job. These people are motivated to get guns, cross the border and attempt to police it. It is clear that migrants must be concerned about the violence inherent to the border. They have to worry not only about Border Patrol or other U.S. officials, but they might also be confronted by militias or other vigilantes who are armed to the teeth and come to the border area with unique violence. Of course, many militiamen say they don’t intend any harm to migrants. I’d ask in response: Why bring guns in that case rather than, say, blankets, water and food?
What are some of the things these border communities do to push out militia groups?
Arivaca is one of the communities I wrote about. They held a series town meetings where they tried lobbying local businesses to ban militias. One of the main points was La Gitana, a local bar that prohibited militias’ access to the bar and their food and drink. This caused a lot of anger in the militias who saw it as a hill to die. But the community wanted to send a strong message that they had a history and that the townspeople didn’t appreciate the presence of the militias.
Other people in southern Arizona had become self-taught sleuths. They were able to find information about militias and vigilante groups that were popping up in their region. We’re not talking about seasoned activists or people with a long resume in migrant solidarity organizing or tracking the far right. When faced with this situation, many people came together. These communities communicated with their neighbors, sharing news and names. They warned each other about militias coming to them. They were able to do this in a way that was easy for them. push back against militias staging a takeover of their community, and where they fought together for a different view of the border.
This interview has been slightly edited for clarity.
